CALGARY — Six months after an acrimonious split between two conservative parties in Alberta played out in full public view during the provincial election, signs of the rift are now leaking out in the byelection campaign in Calgary Centre.

Conservative candidate Joan Crockatt won her party’s nomination vote more than two months ago, but with the Nov. 26 byelection looming, some Tories aren’t happy.

“I’m not sure they want the progressives in their party,” said Pat Moore, a longtime Conservative who is now supporting Liberal Harvey Locke.

Moore’s comments are noteworthy because past Conservative MPs in the inner-city riding — Harvie Andre, Joe Clark and Lee Richardson — all could count on the backing of Moore and her husband, prominent Calgary oilman Sherrold Moore.

The stalwart Conservative couple has volunteered and raised funds for provincial and federal Tory candidates for decades, and Sherrold Moore was an early backer and close adviser to former PC premier Ralph Klein.

But the Moores supported other candidates in the Tory nomination vote in August and say they’re troubled by what they describe as an Ottawa-directed, top-down nomination process — along with the final selection of Crockatt.

“I’m a Progressive Conservative and I wanted a more progressive candidate,” Pat Moore said. “If this is the kind of candidate Calgary Centre wants, I don’t belong there.”

In Alberta, a family feud between conservatives has boiled for years and was on full display during the spring provincial election, as many federal Conservatives threw their support behind Danielle Smith’s Wildrose party over Alison Redford’s Progressive Conservatives.

Crockatt herself has spoken about the squabbling. In a TV interview in her role as a political commentator a few days before the April provincial election, she said the two small-c conservative parties “are in the middle of this major divorce.”

She said the provincial race was one between Smith’s “blue conservatives” and the “left-of-centre, Redford conservatives — they call her the red Tories,” who “are sort of a big-spending, big-government solution.”

Crockatt, a former Calgary Herald journalist, describes herself as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate — and in the byelection battle, she’s receiving help from Conservatives on all sides.

Federal MPs such as Diane Finley, Diane Ablonczy, Michelle Rempel and Rob Anders have already been out stumping on her behalf.

Her election team includes campaign manager William McBeath, a key Wildrose strategist in April’s election, along with campaign co-chair Dale Bossert, who helped run Smith’s Wildrose leadership campaign — and headed the last four campaigns for Calgary Southeast MP Jason Kenney.

But Crockatt’s campaign team points out there are also a number of provincial PCs helping out, including cabinet ministers Jonathan Denis and Christine Cusanelli, as well as Russ Kalmacoff, who sits on Redford’s riding board.

Crockatt notes the premier herself — considered by many to be a standard-bearer for the progressive side of the party — requested a Crockatt sign for her home.

“I got a lawn sign request directly from Premier Redford this week,” Crockatt said in an interview this week.

“It’s wishful thinking for the Liberals or any other party to think that the Conservatives are not together, federally. We very definitely are.”

Locke’s campaign manager Donn Lovett disagrees and said the perception Crockatt’s support comes largely from the party’s right flank is bringing the Liberals support from “many, many” red Tories like the Moores.

The NDP’s Dan Meades and the Green party also hope many in the political diverse riding will come to their sides.

“We absolutely know that is a factor in this election,” said Green candidate Chris Turner. “An absolute core part of our strategy is to establish we really are the moderate alternative in this race.”

But the fate of any opposition party candidate in Calgary Centre is far from certain.

The last time a non-conservative MP was elected in Calgary, Mrs. Robinson by Simon and Garfunkel was a No. 1 song on the radio and Pierre Trudeau was waging his first campaign as federal Liberal leader.

“It’s a Conservative seat,” said political consultant Rod Love, who was Klein’s former chief of staff.

Love said he was surprised to hear the Moores — who helped him during his own unsuccessful 1992 provincial byelection bid as a PC candidate — are now supporting Locke.

“I never thought I’d hear the day that Pat and Sherrold Moore ... are voting Liberal,” he said.

Love acknowledged a “fault line” has run through the conservative movement in Canada for decades, but said Crockatt won the nomination vote while clearly stating her allegiance to the prime minister.

Faithful party members should now throw their support behind her, he said.

“Either you’re a Conservative or you’re not,” Love added.

Former Redford chief of staff and political strategist Stephen Carter — who acknowledges he doesn’t want Crockatt to win because “she’s mean to me,” but said he’s not actively campaigning against her — believes unhappy Conservatives are more likely to stay home on voting day.

“Right now, most Conservatives are still with Joan,” Carter said. “Some Conservatives are just sitting on the sidelines, watching.”

With the byelection vote less than three weeks away, Crockatt said she’s busy knocking on doors. She isn’t concerned about provincial Progressive Conservative supporters jumping ship to her opponents.

“I’ve got tons and tons of support from the provincial PCs,” she said. “Conservatives fully recognize there’s one federal Conservative party and we’re all supporting it.”

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